Hiring new parks director may take a few more months

Don't expect a new Naperville Park District executive director to start until next year.

Two timeline options submitted to the park board by its recently hired search firm suggest a start date of either Jan. 1 or Feb. 1 for the new director.

But board President Kristen Jungles is fine with the nearly yearlong wait. She said she wants the district and search firm to be as thorough as possible to find the perfect fit for the district. Since the district has gone through nearly a dozen directors and interim directors in less than a decade, Jungles believes this search deserves greater scrutiny.

"When you know more, you do better," she said. "That's just my philosophy."

The timelines are likely to warrant a fair amount of debate at Thursday's 7 p.m. park board meeting at city hall, located at 400 S. Eagle St. Initially, the board was hoping to have someone hired by early October. Now, the timelines submitted by the search firm indicate announcing a new director late November or late December, depending on the desired start date.

The district's human resources manager, Katie Seppe, said the long lag between picking a candidate and the start date is to give the new director time to tie up loose ends at their old job.

The Lake Bluff-based PAR Group is the district's search firm. They were hired from a pool of more than eight other firms late last month. The district posted the opening in early August to see what kind of interest would be generated. So far, some 12 to 15 candidates have applied. Some of those are applicants from the search for an interim director.

Jungles said the district's search firm is expected find them anywhere from 120 to 150 other applicants for the job. That requires posting a job profile compiled by the search firm and dispatching recruitment letters that have to be approved by the board.

Jungles said she is fine with the process taking a little longer than anticipated.

"We are not looking for the candidate who is desperate to get out of their current job," she said. "The person we want may not be thinking about a new job until they find out about our opening."

The district has been without an executive director since Barbara Heller quit in March after less than two years, citing philosophical differences with the board.